Opsona Therapeutics lands €3m in funding

Former Trinity College campus company Opsona Therapeutics has landed a further €3 million in funding, which will help finance planned tests on its lead product and boost its treatment potential.

The drug development firm yesterday announced the addition of Paris-based private equity firm Omnes Capital to its list of investors, who have pumped more than €30m into the firm this year.

Back in April, Opsona raised €33m with the likes of Sunstone Capital, Baxter Venture, BB Biotech Ventures and Amgen Ventures linking with its existing backers like Fountain Healthcare Partners and Novartis Venture Fund.

The addition of Omnes brings to €36m the amount Opsona has raised this year in order to fund clinical test work on ‘OPN-305’, its lead product being developed to help kidney transplant patients.

The Dublin company believes OPN-305 has the potential to be a best-in-class treatment for kidney transplant patients and can also provide treatment for a much wider variety of human diseases; including acute kidney injury, cancer and cardiovascular disease.

Opsona chief executive Dr Martin Welschof said the additional funding announcement further validates “the great medical and commercial potential” of the drug candidate.

Dr Bruno Montanari (life sciences director of Omnes Capital) said his company was looking forward to progressing Opsona’s lead product, adding that its primary use for treating renal transplant patients at high risk of Delayed Graft Function could fill a currently largely unmet medical need and hold “attractive commercial potential”.